FHR-D-JOO (11-78)

instructions in Hot.v to all

National sections

historic Colonel Isaac Beeson House

and/or common

street & number North side SR 1854 004 miles w/jct .. with SR 1852

town Colfax district

state North Carolina code 037 county Guilford

__ district

__ structure __ site

__ public

~ private __ both

__ in process considered

name -8ur tic Lee Bam@.

street number Route 1, Box 770

city, town Colfax ----

occupied __ unoccupied __ work in progress

~ yes: restricted _____ yes: unrestricted

no

vicinity of

__ agriculture commercial educational entertainment

___ government Industrial military

state

courthouse, ,~af~lcn'\1 of deeds, etc. Guilford County Courthouse

street & number

Greensboro state

___ not fot'

Sixth

code 081

__ museum __ park

~ residence religious

__ scientific ___ transportation __ other:

North Carolina

North Carolina

Architectural Resources: An Inventory of Historic Architecture, High Point, Jamestown, title has this been determined ~_ no

date 117 • 132 0 federal __ state x __ local

depository for survey records Survey & Plannin~anch, NC Division of _Archives and History

city, town Raleigh state North Carolina

__ unaltered lL

fair

The Beeson House, located in the gently rolling agricultural land of southeast Guilford County, provides an excellent example of the impact of high style design on vernacular building in North Carolina. A two story brick one over three common bond gable roofed Federal style house of about 1790" it has single shoulder exterior end chimneys and a one story gable roofed wing (also brick) attached to its west end, enclosing one of the chimneys 1 This addition creates a balance for the asymmetrical three bayed facade of the original block house whose details are a robust Federal, and like its Quaker pla~ allude to the transformations of form by vernacular practice

The two windO\\Ts of the first flo?r are placed equidistant from the end walls of the house, but the entry door is slightly off-center, to the west, reflecting the interior asymmetrical arrangement On the east end of the house windows flank the chimney and the windows of the second floor are placed directly above those below. The window surrounds consist of a wooden mitered corner beaded molding surrounding flat jambs resting on a cushion sill and supporting a flat top plate The original sill was poplar and replaced by a similarly molded concrete sill in this century 2 This wooden frame is fitted into a shallow opening topped by a flat arch, two/three bricks deep on the first floor and one brick deep on the secondo TILe windows themselves are nine-over-nine sash on the first floor and six-aver-six sash on the second The original front door has been replaced but six panel doors remain in all the openings of the first floor which are framed in triple molded ,jambs and top plates.

Intrusive elements on the exterior consist of a wooden box which is attached to the facade be a'Teen the firs t and second floors.. I t conceals elec trical condui t and the ends of tie rods placed in the joists of the second floor perpendicular to the facade following s truc tural damage to the house in the earthquake of 1886 The front porch \Vas added in this century

Entered by the front door, a large room fills the entire west side of the house with a door and window opposite those of the front. A stair rises in the back corner of this room beside the door To the east are the doors of the two small rooms on the east side of the house. At door jamb height is a molded rail that runs from the first door on the east wall to the corner by the entry door.

The fireplace of the main room is centered on the west wall It is typical tripartite Federal with raised corner blocks on fluted pilasters, a central panel and reeding below and on the top edge of the mantel shelf. Triple molded window frames rest on an elaborate tripartite chair rail and a shoe mold finishes the bottom of the plaster \",alls The in terior walls are plas ter over brick, \'Ti th a tripartite crown molding.. In this room boxed steel beams have been added to counter the sag of the second floor joists

TILe two small rooms to the east have two windows each and corner fireplaces which butt back to back to share the single exterior end chimney The doors are six recessed panel doors and the rooms have the same chair rail and shoe molding as the main roomo The fireplaces are surrounded with a molded and beaded Georgian-like molding supporting plain blocks which support a three-part shelf

fHA-8--300 /1'-7B)

sheet Description 7 1

To the right of the fireplace in the main room is the door to the addition. Used now as a dining room (a later kitchen L is attached behind it) this room has a more robust fireplace surround and mantel o It is also tripartite but 1/8 round columns support raised corner blocks and the entablature has a central raised panel under the elaborately molded and extravagantly projecting mantel shelf

Going upstairs one finds reminders of the elegant finishes which must have characterized the house. The risers of the enclosed, flush paneled stairs are stippled 'The newel at the top is very thin and has chamfered corners with thin square balusters and a molded and beaded top rail Bits of marbleizing cling to the wood and must echo the extraordinary fireplace surround in this large roomo Red, green and brown marbleizing decorate this tripartite surround whose 1/8 round columns, raised end and center blocks and deep molded shelf copy the forms of the dining room mantel. The marbleizing is used to enhance the divisions of the entablature by further panelizing its divisions by painted notched edge panels that create an inlaid, three-dimensional effect. It has the same window frames and chair rail as the room below, although the window heads have a flat projection which looks Victoriann With its six windows and mantel it seems more like a parlor than a bedroom.

In the back corner a four panel door leads into one of the two small bedrooms on this floor This door's back side is elaborately painted in simulated woodgraining and) like the marbleizing, contrasting grains are used to produce the effect of raised notched panels on the door. These rooms also have corner fireplaces and trim similar to that of the other rooms

Taken as a whole the Beeson house is a lovely and excellent example of the combination of fairly sophisticated building sources with local desires and traditions which produce fine vernacular architecture o

FOOTNOTES:

1 The date on this house is not clear but some bricks on the site of the

original detached kitchen are dated 1787. I would place the house within ten years after this date on visual evidence alone o

2 This information was supplied by the owner.

_170~1799

JL 1800-1 __ commerce 1900- __ communications __ industry

__ invention

__ music __ social/

humanitarian

The substance, scale and formal complexity of details in this t\vO-story brick house combine to provide an excellent and intriguing example of the retention of medieval plan type overlaid with Federal high style details which, in their robust interpretation retain a feel of the Georgian from which they emerge The Beeson House is a significant and useful survival in Piedmont North Carolina where it provides a complement and contrast to the German and Moravian fonns which tend to predominate.

Criteria Assessment:

C. The Beeson House embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type (the Quaker plan), period (late Georgian-early Federal) and method of construction that is significant to the development of architecture in Piedmont North Carolina in the late 18th and early 19th centuries The use of the "Quaker plan"--the three-room arrangement--is found here in a house known to have been built for a Quaker family. The plan, together with the conservative gable-roof brick form, are characteristic of the more substantial houses of the North Carolina Piedmont. The interior woodvlork is unusually rich and well-preserved

D. The Beeson House and property are likely to yield information about rural life in Piedmont North Carolina in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

FHR-8--JOO (11-78)

Continuation sheet Significance Item number 8 1

Isaac Beeson, builder of the Beeson House, moved to Rowan County, North Carolina, in 1758 from Virginia where he had been an active member of the Hopewell Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends. As Quakers in good standing, Beeson and his wife Phoebe Stroud brought with them certificates of transfer, and on June 24 they were received at the New Garden Meeting 1 Four years earlier Isaac's parents, Richard and Charity Beeson, had been received also by certificates of transfer from Hopewell, and they had settled in the region that became Guilford County in 1771 Richard and Charity were both ministers of the Quaker faith ani traveled throughout North Carolina and South Carolina establishing new meetings and spreading the tenets of the beliefs.2 Richard, Charity, and Isaac Beeson led the movement to formally organize the Deep River Meeting in 1778 For a number of years previously, the Friends had met in Richard and Charity's horne a few miles distant from the eventual site of the meeting house Upon his parents v deaths, Isaac continued their efforts to establish and support a school for the children of Deep River Friends. 3

In 1757, Isaac Beeson purchased 480 acres on an eastern fork of Deep River from William Shapperd 4 There, a few miles northwest of his father's home, Isaac built a small log house for his family That structure stood immediately behind the present house and later was used as a kitchen At some point a breezeway was constructed to connect the old house (kitchen) to the main house, and that architectural feature survived IDLtil ca 1900 5 Foundation remains of the old house can still be seen under the present kitchen.

By 1787 Isaac Beeson had become a prominent Guilford County landowner and had risen in social status as far as his Quaker heritage would permit His income was derived from livestock and grain production, but his religious beliefs prohibited ownership of slaves Those same religious convictions had forced him to take a nonmilitaristic position in the American Revolution, but he had served the patriotic cause by hiring out his wagons and by supplying field troops with beef and other foods .. 6

The discovery of a brick dated 1787 suggests that Beeson either began or completed the house nmV' standing in that year. 't]ord passed do-vffi through generations states that the bricks used in the cons truc tion were made in the area along the river bank a few hu..ndred yards northwest of the houseo 7 Tl."le identity of the builder remains unknown, but the plan of the house closely follows a general style designed for Quaker homes by William Penn many years earlier and according to T To Waterman "is the typical house plan in Piedmont North Carolina "8

Isaac and Phoebe Beeson were parents of twelve children, ten of whom survived their father who died in 1802 0 Two sons, Richard and Benjamin, were diso\vued by the Quaker meeting for marrying out of the faith, \'lhich may partially account for Isaac, Jr'so inheritance of "all the land where I now live with all the buildings thereto belonging at the decease or marriage of my wife o "9

Isaac, Jr. (1764-1829) was the seventh of twelve childreno He never married and his death, t\vO years before his mother, thre\V' into confusion the heir to the homestead after Phoebe's death 10 Furthennore, Isaac, Jr \Vas one of the executors of his father's 1;"ill and had not settled that estate before his own death o The two estates became intermixed resulting in an extremely complicated court litigation Out of the chaos, Richard G Beeson, a grandson of Isaac the builder, emerged with the house and farm. 11

FHR-8-300 (11-78)

sheet Significance Item number 8 2

Richard G Beeson married Polly Bell, member of a wealthy and influential Guilford County family For some time prior to 1854, the couple lived in the Beeson House, but the date of their move to the home of Richard's grandfather could not be determined Livestock apparently dominated the farm economy; however, Richard managed to acquire extensive landholdings, includ­ing most of the tract originally purchased by Isaac Beeson, Sr. 12 Richard was also active in religious work, not among Quakers but in the Methodist faith Beeson descendants agree he played a prominent role in the establishment and expansion of the Sandy Ridge Methodist Church even though there is some disagreement concerning donations of land for the building and the cemetery .. 13

Richard Beeson died late in 1854 or early 1855 His will was probated in February of the latter year and to his nephews, Richard J. and Franklin P Tatum, he bequeathed "my tract of land on which I live after the death of my beloved wife.... "Polly must have died '''ithin a few years for on April 1, 1859, the Tatum brothers sold the house and 350 acres to Joseph A. Davis,,14

J" A. Davis was an antebellum planter, local magistrate, and land speculator who was often referred to as Squire Davis 15 He apparently suffered the woes COID~on to many of the wealthy class in the aftermath of the Civil War. His fortune dwindled and he was forced to mortgage his home and farm. By a special agreement with his major creditor, Alexander McIver, he leased the farm with the annual rents being applied to payoff his debt 16 Continued indebted­ness, however, brought renewed mortgages, and by 1900, an aging Joe Davis could no longer work the farm sufficiently to pay the debts.. The property was sold at auction, and though purchase by Davis's wife Pauline brought a temporary reprieve, the house and land soon passed to a ne,,, owner .17 Even though Davis lived in the home for more than forty years, local people continued to call it the Beeson House, a name it has never relinquished.

Following the Davis occupancy the Beeson House became the center of a large tobacco farm operated first by Thomas E. Reynolds and later by Claude Gray Reynolds was a bachelor and a member of the prominent Reynolds family of Winston-Salem. He produced the tobacco which was shipped to the family's manufacturing enterpriseso 18 Gray came into possession of the 443 acre farm in 1938 and remained in the Beeson House wltil the mid 1940s. He built a new house about a quarter of a mile away and for a brief period, part of the Beeson House was used for tobacco storageo 19 In 1945 Lee and Etta Bame bought the Beeson House and 160 acres .. They still occupy the home but they transferred title to their Bon, Fred R .. Bume, in 1969 20

Several facets of the Beeson House history are worthy of specific mention TI1e Charleston earthquake of 1886 sent severe shock waves through the North Carolina piedmont causing extensive structural damage. The Beeson House suffered a split on the east wall that extended from the roof to the foundation Large iron bol ts \l7ere inserted through the rear wall in an effort to hold the house togethero The barn to the rear of the house is also quite old, and for many years it served as an entertainmene center for the Deep River Communit~ Square dances in the large open structure were common, and undoubtedly corn shuckings and other forms of recreation took place there. The barn underwent significant interior altera­tion when tobacco became the farmfs leading commodity.. Sitting in the front yard is an "upping" stone used by the ladies to mount the riding horses. It is a large rock with a step chipped out to form a two step stair.21

FHA--8-300 (11--71:1)

Continuation sheet Significance Itern nurnber 8 3

The structure of course is closely related to the surrounding environmente Archaeological remains, such as trash pits, \vells, and structural remains, which may be present, can provide information valuable to the understanding and interpretation of the structure Information concerning use patterns, social standing and mobility, as well as structural details are often only evident in the archaeological record Therefore, archaeological remains may well be an important component of the significance of the structure o At this time no investigation has been done to discover these remains, but it is probable that they exist; and this should be considered in any development of the property

FHR-tl-300 (11-78)

sheet Significance Item number 8 4

1Margaret Ailene Beeson (comp ), A Genealog1-9f the Beeson Family (Greensboro, 1973), 12, hereinafter cited as Beeson, Beeson Family. Miss Beeson was graduated from Guilford College and attained an Mo A~ degree from Columbia University.

2 Beeson, Beeson Family~ See also David Leroy Corbitt, The Formation of the

North Carolina Counties 1663-1943 (Raleigh Department of Archives and History--1950), 1130

3Researcher's interview with Ailene Beeson June 9, 1980, hereinafter cited as Beeson interview See fn. 1 See also High\vay Historical Marker File J 49, Deep River Friends Meeting, in Research Branch, Archaeology and Historic Preservation Section, Division of Archives and History, Raleigh

4 Rowan County Deed Books Office of the Register of Deeds, Rowan County Courthouse,

Salisbury, Deed Book 2, p 202 Shepperd had obtained a Granville grant for 484 acres in 1756 See Rowan County peed Abstracts, I, 17, 29

5Beeson interview; and Researcher f s in tervie1;v ",Ji th Fred Bame, current owner of the house, June 9, 1980 hereinafter cited as Bame interviewo

6Beeson interview. A listing of property in the will of Isaac Beeson and the inventory of his son's Isaac, Jro estate show ownership of considerable livestock which offers support for the tradition o See Guilford County Will Books, Office of the Clerk of Superior Court, Guilford County Courthouse, Greensboro, Will Book A, 32 hereinafter cited as Guilford County Will Book, and Guilford County Estate Papers State Archives Raleigh, estate of Isaac Beeson [!r ,1829, hereinafter cited as Estates Papers

7Bame interview; and Beeson interview

8Beeson interview T T. Waterman, Early Architecture of North Carolina (Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press, 1947), 173

9Beeson, Beeson Family, 12-14; Beeson interview; and Guilford County Will Book A, 32

10 . . d I B I-J Beeson lntervlew; an saac eeson _ r Estate Papers

11 - -Isaac Beeson LJr_1 Estate Papers; and will of Richard Beeson, File No. 01038,

copy in possession of Ailene Beeson of Greensboro, hereinafter cited as Richard Beeson will. Will recorded in Guilford County Will Book C, 437.

12Beeson interview; and Richard Beeson will See Guilford County Deed Books, Office of the Register of Deeds, Guilford County Courthouse, Greensboro, index, for transfers to Richard G Beeson, 1834-1854 hereinafter cited as Guilford County Deed Book See also Isaac Beeson (}r::...7, Es ta te Papers

13 . . Beeson lntervlew.

14Richard Beeson will; and Guilford County Deed Book 37, p 637

15 Bame interview Fred Bame's great grandparents were married by Squire Davis in

the Beeson House in the 1880s

FHA-8-300 (11-76)

Continuation sheet Significance Item number 8 5

16Cuilford County Deed Book 67, pw 541Q For other references, see Deed Book 60, p 79

17 Guilford County Deed Book 186, p 519; and Deed Book 318, P0 610. Note the previous

conveyance to T. E Reynolds by R R K.ing and wife and E. P (Pauline) Davis

18 The property passed to Reynolds (see fn 17); then to Reynold's heirs; then to W C$ (Claude) Gray; then to James D and Marie Payne Greene; and finally to the Bame family See Guilford County Will Book 0, 345 (Thomas E. Reynolds); and Guilford County Deed Book 837, p. 422; Deed Book 1021, p 512; and Deed Book 1081, p 108. See also Beeson interview; and Bame interview.

19Bame interview; and Guilford County Deed Book 837, p 422.

20 Guilford County Deed Book 1081, p 108

21 . j B ' i Beeson lnterv_ew; arne lnterv ew and inspection of house and grounds by researcher, June 9, 1980

fHR---Il-JOO (11-713)

Continuation sheet Bibliography Item number 9

Beeson, Margaret Ailene. Interview, June 9, 1980

Corbitt, David Leroy The Formation ~ the North Carolina Counties 1663-1943. Raleigh Department of Archives and History, 1950

Guilford County Records Deeds Estates Papers Wills

Highway Historical Marker File J 49, Deep River Friends Meeting. Division of Archives and History, Raleigh.

Rowan County Deed Abstracts, I Rowan County Library, Salisbury.

Rowan COlmty Deed Records

Stockard, Sallie W. History of G~ilford County. Knoxville: Gat-Ogden, 1902.

1

Waterman, TI10mas Tileston The Early Architecture of North Carolina. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1947.

Balle, Fred Intervie'\tJ June 9 1980

Beeson, Hargaret Ailene, camp A Greensboro, 1973

u'·r""''''''n~ .. 01; nominated Appx 0 . 2 acres <l>rlV''''n .... !O name _ Kernersvill.e Quad scale 1:24000

UMT f-ieferences

A llLZJ L~~~L£J~ L~J_l9 121 ~ 18 L9J BLLl Zone Northing Zone

The ground on which the house stands and a square of acreage equal to a parc:1llellogram of one acre on each side o

state code code

code county code

Architectural description" Charlotte VQ Bro-v.ffi Architectural Historian name/title Significance : Jerry. L. Cross, Researcher

Division of Archives and History

street & number

and Historic Preservation Survey and Planning 109 East Jones Street

date , 1980

(919) 733-6545

city or town Raleigh state North Carolina 27611

The evaluated significance 01 this property within the state is:

__ national __ state X local

State Historic Preservation Officer fm the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (Public law 89-nominate this property for inclusion in the Natio ,",I Register and certify that it has been evaluated

to tho criteria £IneZ S(~t forth by the Her' J" and Recreation Service.

State Historic Preservation Officer

title State Historic Preservation Officer date July 25, 1980

GP 0 9 38 835

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Beeson House N side SR 1854 Colfax, N. C. vic. Kernersville Quadrangle Zone 17 Scale 1:24000 17 588040/3992480

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original cellar addition

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original walls

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2nd floor

1st floor

GUILFOHD COUNTY

COLONEL ISAAC BEESON HOUSE

N. side SR 1854 0.4 mil s W. Jet with SR 1852